Readers' Letters: What does John Swinney have to offer Scotland beyond Kate Forbes?

It was often noted that Sturgeon used Swinney to deliver bad news on those rare occasions when she didn't want to be in front of the media. Who will he now use? Kate Forbes?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Bleating nonsense

John Swinney was bleating on the TV news about Brexit being forced upon Scotland by Westminster. How many times have we heard that and how many more times to come? The vote on Brexit was taken by the entire British electorate, not by Westminster, and John can pretend all he wants but Scotland is part of Britain. It was a democratic decision by us all. I’ve heard it said by SNP “politicians” that more Scottish people voted to stay in Europe than voted not to so we should accept that. On the same theme, more Scottish people voted to stay part of the UK than voted to leave, but does the SNP accept that? No, that democratic decision doesn’t suit their purpose so it’s ignored.

Ian Balloch, Grangemouth, Falkirk

Puppet on a string?

It comes as no surprise that John Swinney is tipped to become the next SNP leader and ultimately First Minister. Many see him as a safe pair of hands at a time when the SNP boat has been rocked by scandal and inaction. Yet his performance over recent years has been lacklustre and at a time when the economy and public services need to be reinvigorated, there must be doubts about whether this second “continuity candidate” has the ability to do this. One can't dismiss the vision of the puppeteer lurking in the background pulling the political strings.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

A stronger SNP

Yesterday’s Scotsman Letters contained all the usual exaggerations and the clutching to the tired old comforters such as Michael Matheson’s iPad suggests desperation. The ending of the Bute House Agreement will be popular, as will be the absence of a leadership contest. The SNP will unite behind a Swinney/Forbes leadership – even Joanna Cherry MP welcomed it – and united parties tend to succeed. I anticipate a boost to the SNP’s standing in the polls.

UK-wide the Conservatives are in freefall, but Scottish Labour has not risen to the heights reached in England. Alba have made themselves deeply unpopular with Salmond’s grandstanding and Ash Regan’s inexplicable decision to support Scottish Labour’s no-confidence motion.Scottish Labour’s desperate efforts to bring about an early Scottish election have failed. They know that some of the support they now have for a Westminster vote will disappear once the Tories are booted out. Two years of Labour-lite government will disappoint. Scottish Labour will soon be falling in popularity.

Politics can be brutal. Humza Yousaf has taken a fall, perhaps unfairly, but the uncomfortable truth for unionists is that the SNP are emerging stronger from the events of the last fortnight.

Robert Farquharson, Edinburgh

Labour hypocrisy

Jackie Baillie is being hypocritical when calling for an early Holyrood election (Perspective, 3 May) as Labour installed a new unelected First Minister in Wales only a few weeks ago despite the fact he was involved in a controversial £200,000 donation to his leadership campaign from a company whose owner had twice been convicted of environmental offences.

Despite Tory cuts, which Labour blames for the much poorer public services in Wales, Scotland has a far better performing NHS and public services than elsewhere in the UK. Last year 96 per cent of school leavers were in a positive destination within three months and the gap between the most and least deprived areas is the narrowest since 2010. Also, the unique Scottish Child Payment has lifted 100,000 out of poverty. Many more affordable houses have been built under the SNP, particularly when compared to the last Labour/Lib Dem administration.

This week it was reported that Labour is now watering down its policy on workers’ rights and zero hours contracts, while at Holyrood Labour MSPs abstained rather than supporting calls for compensation for the Waspi women’s pension rights.

Given the number of policy u-turns, the main change Labour is planning at Westminster is to replace a multi-millionaire with a mere millionaire! The UK economy will not improve until Brexit is reversed and EU freedom of movement restored, while the World Bank forecasts that Poland will be wealthier than the UK in 2025.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh

Cronies’ kingdom

Boom, there it is! The fix is in. Another Sturgeon acolyte ascends the golden throne of SNP leadership to provide much-needed continuity with her glorious legacy. What could possibly go wrong? I'd be surprised if Swinney makes it to the next Holyrood election.

Perhaps by then the SNP old guard (ie Sturgeon's mates) will have got over their collective delusion and realised that they are the problem. But I doubt it.

Until then we get to revel in another hopeless first minister flogging the same dead horse to electoral oblivion. And they don't even realise it.

John McSweeney, Edinburgh

Games folly

SNP Health Secretary Neil Gray proposes that Glasgow host the 2026 Commonwealth Games – the crowning glory of Britain’s colonial past – with a budget of £135 million and zero cost to the Scottish taxpayer (your report, 2 May).

This is the exact same cost of hosting the much lesser event of the World Cycling Championships in 2023, which itself massively overshot its budget.

Given the SNP’s atrocious record for correctly calculating the cost of anything, is this proposal not of the utmost folly when no other city in the Commonwealth wishes to go anyplace near the hosting of these games due to the cost involved and Scotland has absolutely no cash to pick up what will undoubtedly be a very big budget overrun?

The fact that the event is to be scaled back and assurances will be received with regard to the funding is simply not nearly worth the risk of further impoverishing the Scottish purse.

When will lessons ever be learned that there is an unacceptable cost to the Scottish taxpayer of this constant SNP grandstanding?

Michael Officer, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire

Trough luck

Pass the sick bag. I find all the recent drivel being spoken about what’s best for the people, the country etc a bit nauseating and disingenuous. We can all see through this charade and know perfectly well it is nothing to do with these lofty aims. It’s about how a politician can maintain his/her/etc snout in the trough for as long as possible.

Brian Petrie, Edinburgh

Bobby dazzler?

I went this week to Edinburgh City Council’s display in the Augustine United Church of its proposals for the regulation of traffic from the Meadows to George Street. These struck me as well thought-out and rational, but I was disappointed that, apparently because of heritage objections, opportunity had not been taken to move the statue of Greyfriars Bobby 50 metres south from its present position on the pavement where Candlemaker Row joins George IV Bridge to the public space which is to be created in front of Bedlam theatre.

As it stands, the statue spends the tourist season surrounded by a gaggle of visitors blocking the pavement and spilling on to the road, while irritated residents try to force their way through the mob. This could easily be accommodated without such obstruction in the new public space to the convenience of all, set against signage indicating the nearby entry to Greyfriars Church.

It is hard to see what the heritage objection might be. The real interest of the statue is that it is a flight of fancy which draws attention to the historic church and churchyard but few of the gawpers make the connection in practice. Little would be lost by moving it 50 metres to a site where there is space for a guide to offer a fuller explanation of the statue’s significance and of the church’s role in our history.

James Scott, Edinburgh

Car trouble

I enjoyed Matt Allan’s piece on driving the new all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre (26 April), but did steering her around country lanes along the Tweed put his head in a spin? The reference to company founder “Charles Royce” surely should be Charles Rolls, legendary partner of Henry Royce.

Ian Whiteley, Bournemouth, Dorset

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